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I have been using this planer for about two years and still love it. I love how easy it is to change the blades, even thought they are rather expensive. I routinely use it to plane rough hardwoods such as maple, oak, hickory, and walnut. I always run the boards over my joiner first, otherwise this planer has trouble with warped and rough boards. I get about 70 bd ft before I need to change the blades but since they're double sided, I really get about 140+ bd ft per set of blades. I'm very happy with this planer and I would buy it again anytime.
Where I have had problems with snipe is when the wood i'm planing is slightly warped. Also, I'm more a weekend warrior. I don't do woodworking for a living, i do it for fun. I added the runout tables (for 50 bucks) and it drastically reduced if not eliminated the snipe. I have it and love it. I am very pleased with the planer. The first addition is the runout tables. Those blades will wear down very quickly.
They're made of high speed steel, not carbide. The factory blades would hold up if your planing 1/32 at a time and your not planing any extremely hard woods like Teak (and honestly i wouldn't feel comfortable planing mahogany with the factory blades). I am looking forward to seeing how the planer performs.I gave this planer 4 stars mostly due to the cost to get it up to my standards. with that said, here is my review:The planer itself is not enough to give cabinet grade finishes.
It is virtually impossible to eliminate snipe without them. You have to put another 300 dollars into it for that. I wanted a quality bench top planer instead of a stand-alone due to limited space (still have to get the car in the garage). I have no idea. This was also my first planer. why would you ever make a cutting tool out of HSS for this application. I have no idea why these were not included with the planer.
the second addition (this is the expensive one) is the carbide knives. I have run a few bf of white and red oak thru it so far with the new blades(i will update my review as i get more use out of it). I always due a lot of research before buying any expensive new tool and this was no exception. I knew this when purchasing the planer and soon after i purchased the carbide knives (250 bucks) from Infinity Tools (you can find it here on amazon). Those blades took my dewalt planer to a whole new level. The carbide makes a noticeable difference on how the planer sounds (less load on the motor).
A lot of people have reported the blades Dewalt supplies do not hold up. total i have 800 bucks invested into it which is still under 1500+ for the stand-alone and i feel i am getting the same quality and durability.If you want to spend more money: wixey makes a digital readout gage (about 50 bucks again) that bolts right up to this planer. so i couldn't justify 1500+ for a stand-alone. Next project is and 8/4 cherry kitchen table. unfortunately snipe is unavoidable in this situation and i don't think any planer would make that different. If your planning to take large cuts with the factory blades you can forget it.
and the planed surface is perfect in my opinion. It increases the precision of the tool overall.
I'm shopping for something else. Flipping the blades was easy, but at $55 for new ones this could get expensive.
I bought it for my wife to use in her clock shop for the occasional replacement of a panel for a cuckoo clock. On the first project, it lasted all of an hour of light use before the drive belt broke.
I should have read other reviews before purchasing this thing. We never tried to take off more than 1/32" at a pass from clean clear walnut.
That was $27.42 plus tax and gas for a two hour drive. Then the blades were dull within another hour of use.
Unfortunately, we let it sit un-used for over a year so it can't be returned. I love all the rest of my DeWalt tools, of which there are many.
Again great customer service and could be a great planer if they could only solve their knife problem.I am a professional cabinet builder and have planed several thousand board feet of a large quanity of different species of woods from pine to hickory. 100 board feet of poplar.
Used a walnut 1 x 4 that had previously been planed and sanded just to try this planer. I bought this planer and returned it after 1 week.
Great customer service.I replaced the knives and started to plane approx. I knicked the blades on the first pass and continued to knick the blades on subsequent passes.
I contacted Dewalt and they immediately shipped a new set of knives that I received 2 days later. After planing about 10 to 12 board feet, the blades again were so badly knicked I stopped and got my trusty Delta 22-580 13" planer and finished the job.I returned the Dewalt to the dealer for a full refund.
This planer with the knives supplied currently is unacceptable for the highest priced portable planer on the market.
This limitation troubled me so much that I considered returning the planer for a refund. I bought this planer a year ago to replace my faithful but aging Delta portable. Then it occurred to me that the machine was behaving as though it had dull blades, so I bought a set (not cheap, but that's grist for another mill) and replaced the factory-installed blades. I was pleased with the ease of set-up, two-speeds, and, especially, the snipe control (snipe is essentially nonexistent with this planer). What I WASN'T happy about was that this planer could take only the shallowest cuts, and then oh so slowly, with more than occasional burning of the wood (e.g., oak or maple). I was VERY impressed by how easy the replacement was, but imagine my delight when I discovered that the planer now performed in excess of my original expectations. Shame on DeWalt for shipping that machine with dulled blades (it'd be nice if they'd send me a set), but in any case I'm now glad I bought it, and I'd recommend it to anyone.
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